Aramaic's long history and diverse and widespread use has led to
the development of many divergent varieties which are sometimes
treated as dialects. Thus, there is
no one Aramaic language, but each time and place has had its own
variety. Aramaic is retained as a liturgical language by certain
Eastern Christian sects, in the form of Syriac, the Aramaic variety by which
Eastern Christianity was
diffused, whether or not those communities once spoke it or another
form of Aramaic as their vernacular, but
have since shifted to another language as their primary community
language.

Geographic distribution

During the
Neo-Assyrian and the Neo-Babylonian period, Aramaeans, the native speakers of Aramaic, began
to settle in greater numbers in Mesopotamia (modern-day Syria, Iraq and eastern
Turkey). The influx eventually resulted in the
Assyrian and Babylonian empires becoming operationally bilingual, with Aramaic used alongside
Akkadian. As these empires, and
the Persian Empire that followed,
extended their influence in the region, Aramaic gradually became
the lingua franca of most of Western
Asia and Egypt. From the seventh century CE onwards, Aramaic was
replaced as the lingua franca of the Middle
East by Arabic. However, Aramaic
remains a literary and liturgical language among Jews, Mandaeans and some Christians, and is still spoken
by small isolated communities throughout its original area of
influence. The turbulence of the last two centuries has seen
speakers of first-language and literary Aramaic dispersed
throughout the world.

Aramaic languages and dialects

Traditionally, Aramaic is considered a single language. However, it
could equally well be considered a group of closely related
languages, rather than a single monolithic language—something which
it has never been. Its long history, extensive literature, and use
by different religious communities are all factors in the
diversification of the language. Some Aramaic dialects are mutually
intelligible, whereas others are not. Some Aramaic languages are
known under different names; for example, Syriac is particularly used to describe
the Eastern Aramaic of Christian communities. Most dialects can be
described as either "Eastern"' or "Western", the dividing line
being roughly the Euphrates, or slightly
west of it. It is also helpful to draw a distinction between those
Aramaic languages that are modern living languages (often called
Neo-Aramaic), those that are still in use as literary
languages, and those that are extinct and are only of interest to
scholars. Although there are some exceptions to this rule, this
classification gives "Modern", "Middle" and "Old" periods,
alongside "Eastern" and "Western" areas, to distinguish between the
various languages and dialects that are Aramaic.

Writing system

The earliest Aramaic alphabet was based on the Phoenician script. In time, Aramaic
developed its distinctive 'square' style. The ancient Israelites
and other peoples of Canaan adopted this
alphabet for writing their own languages. Thus, it is better known
as the Hebrew alphabet today. This
is the writing system used in Biblical
Aramaic and other Jewish writing in Aramaic. The other main
writing system used for Aramaic was developed by Christian
communities: a cursive form known as the Syriac alphabet (one of the varieties of the
Syriac alphabet, Serto, is shown to the left). A highly modified
form of the Aramaic alphabet, the Mandaic alphabet, is used by the Mandaeans.

In
addition to these writing systems, certain derivatives of the
Aramaic alphabet were used in ancient times by particular groups:
Nabataean in Petra, for
instance and Palmyrenean in Palmyra. In
modern times, Turoyo (see below), has sometimes been written in
an adapted Latin alphabet.

Old Aramaic

The term ‘Old Aramaic’ is used to describe the varieties of the
language from its first known use until the point roughly marked by
the rise of the Sasanian Empire (224
CE), dominating the influential, eastern dialect region. As such,
the term covers over thirteen centuries of the development of
Aramaic. This vast time span includes all Aramaic that is now
effectively extinct.

The central phase in the development of Old Aramaic was its
official use by the Achaemenid
Empire (500–330 BCE). The period before this, dubbed ‘Ancient
Aramaic’, saw the development of the language from being spoken in
Aramaean city-states to become a major means of communication in
diplomacy and trade throughout Mesopotamia, the Levant
and Egypt.
After the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, local vernaculars became
increasingly prominent, fanning the divergence of an Aramaic
dialect continuum and the
development of differing written standards.

Ancient Aramaic

‘Ancient Aramaic’ refers to the earliest known period of the
language, from its origin until it becomes the official ‘lingua
franca’ of the Fertile Crescent.
It was the
language of the Aramaean city-states of
Damascus, Hamath and Arpad.

There are inscriptions that evidence the earliest use of the
language, dating from the tenth century BCE. These inscriptions are
mostly diplomatic documents between Aramaean city-states. The
orthography of Aramaic at this early period seems to be based on
Phoenician, and there is a unity
in the written language. It seems that, in time, a more refined
orthography, suited to the needs of the language, began to develop
from this in the eastern regions of Aram. Oddly, the dominance of
Assyrian Empire of Tiglath-Pileser III over Aram in the
middle of the eighth century led to the establishment of Aramaic as
a lingua franca, rather than it being
eclipsed by Akkadian.

From 700 BCE, the language began to spread in all directions, but
lost much of its homogeneity. Different dialects emerged in Mesopotamia, Babylonia,
the Levant and Egypt.However,
the Akkadian-influenced Aramaic of Assyria, and then Babylon, started to
come to the fore. As described in 2 Kings 18:26, Hezekiah, king of Judah, negotiates with Assyrian ambassadors
in Aramaic so that the common people would not understand. Around
600 BCE, Adon, a Canaanite king, used Aramaic
to write to the Egyptian Pharaoh.

‘Chaldee’ or ‘Chaldean Aramaic’ used to be common terms for the
Aramaic of the Chaldean dynasty of Babylonia. It was used to describe Biblical Aramaic, which was, however,
written in a later style. It is not to be confused with the modern
language Chaldean
Neo-Aramaic.

Imperial Aramaic

Around 500 BCE, following the Achaemenid conquest of Mesopotamia under
Darius I, Aramaic (as had been
used in that region) was adopted by the conquerors as the "vehicle
for written communication between the different regions of the vast
empire with its different peoples and languages. The use of a
single official language, which modern scholarship has dubbed
Official Aramaic or Imperial Aramaic, can be assumed to have
greatly contributed to the astonishing success of the Achaemenids
in holding their far-flung empire together for as long as they
did". In 1955, Richard Frye questioned the classification of
Imperial Aramaic as an 'official language', noting that no
surviving edict expressly and unambiguously accorded that status to
any particular language. Frye reclassifies Imperial Aramaic as the
lingua franca of the
Achaemenid territories, suggesting then that the Achaemenid-era use
of Aramaic was more pervasive than generally thought.

Imperial Aramaic was highly standardised; its orthography was based
more on historical roots than any spoken dialect, and the
inevitable influence of Persian
gave the language a new clarity and robust flexibility. For
centuries after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire (in 331 BCE),
Imperial Aramaic or near enough for it to be recognisable would
remain an influence on the various native Iranian languages. Aramaic script and as
ideograms Aramaic vocabulary would survive as the essential
characteristics of the Pahlavi writing
system.

One of the
largest collections of Imperial Aramaic texts is that of the
Persepolis fortification tablets, which number about five
hundred.Many of the extant documents witnessing to
this form of Aramaic come from Egypt, and
Elephantine in particular (see Elephantine papyri). Of them, the
best known is the Wisdom of Ahiqar,
a book of instructive aphorisms quite similar in style to the
biblical book of Proverbs.
Achaemenid Aramaic is sufficiently uniform that it is often
difficult to know where any particular example of the language was
written. Only careful examination reveals the occasional loan word
from a local language.

A group of thirty Aramaic documents from Bactria have been recently discovered. An analysis
was published in November 2006. The texts, which were rendered on
leather, reflect the use of Aramaic in the fourth century BCE
Achaemenid administration of Bactria and Sogdiana.

Post-Achaemenid Aramaic

The conquest by Alexander the
Great did not destroy the unity of Aramaic language and
literature immediately. Aramaic that bears a relatively close
resemblance to that of the fifth century BCE can be found right up
to the early second century BCE. The Seleucids imposed Greek in the administration of Syria and Mesopotamia from the start of their rule.
In the third century BCE, Greek overtook Aramaic as the common
language in Egypt and Syria. However, a post-Achaemenid Aramaic continued
to flourish from Judaea, through the
Syrian Desert and into Arabia and
Parthia.

Biblical Aramaic is a somewhat hybrid dialect. Some Biblical
Aramaic material probably originated in both Babylonia and Judaea
before the fall of the Achaemenid dynasty. During Seleucid rule, defiant Jewish propaganda
shaped Aramaic Daniel. These stories
probably existed as oral traditions at their earliest stage. This
might be one factor that led to differing collections of Daniel in
the GreekSeptuagint and the Masoretic Text, which presents a lightly
Hebrew-influenced Aramaic.

Under the category of post-Achaemenid is Hasmonaean Aramaic, the
official language of Hasmonaean Judaea
(142–37 BCE). It influenced the Biblical Aramaic of the
Qumran texts, and
was the main language of non-biblical theological texts of that
community. The major Targums,
translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic, were originally
composed in Hasmonaean. Hasmonaean also appears in quotations in
the Mishnah and Tosefta, although smoothed into its later context.
It is written quite differently from Achaemenid Aramaic; there is
an emphasis on writing as words are pronounced rather than using
etymological forms.

Babylonian Targumic is the later
post-Achaemenid dialect found in the Targum Onqelos and Targum Jonathan, the 'official' targums. The
original, Hasmonaean targum had reached Babylon sometime in the
second or third centuries CE. They were then reworked according to
the contemporary dialect of Babylon to create the language of the
standard targums. This combination formed the basis of Babylonian
Jewish literature for centuries to follow.

Galilean Targumic is similar to Babylonian Targumic. It is the
mixing of literary Hasmonaean with the dialect of Galilee. The Hasmonaean targum reached Galilee in
the second century CE, and were reworked into this Galilean dialect
for local use. The Galilean Targum was not considered an
authoritative work by other communities, and documentary evidence
shows that its text was amended. From the eleventh century CE
onwards, once the Babylonian Targum had become normative, the
Galilean version became heavily influenced by it.

Babylonian Documentary Aramaic is a dialect in use from the third
century CE onwards. It is the dialect of Babylonian private
documents, and, from the twelfth century, all Jewish private
documents in Aramaic. It is based on Hasmonaean with very few
changes. This was perhaps due to the fact that many of the
documents in BDA are legal documents, the language in them had to
be sensible throughout the Jewish community from the start, and
Hasmonaean was the old standard.

Nabataean Aramaic is the language of the
Arab kingdom of Petra. The
kingdom (c.200 BCE–106 CE covered the east bank of the
Jordan
River, the Sinai Peninsula and northern Arabia. Perhaps because of the
importance of the caravan trade, the Nabataeans began to use
Aramaic in preference to Old North
Arabic. The dialect is based on Achaemenid with a little
influence from Arabic: 'l' is often turned into 'n', and there are
a few Arabic loan words. Some Nabataean Aramaic inscriptions exist
from the early days of the kingdom, but most are from the first
four centuries CE. The language is written in a cursive script that is the precursor to the modern
Arabic alphabet. The number of
Arabic loan words increases through the centuries, until, in the
fourth century, Nabataean merges seamlessly with Arabic.

Palmyrene
Aramaic is the dialect that was in use in the city of Palmyra in the
Syrian Desert from 44 BCE to 274 CE. It was written in a
rounded script, which later gave way to cursive Estrangela. Like Nabataean, Palmyrene was
influenced by Arabic, but to a lesser degree.

Arsacid Aramaic, that in use during the Arsacid empire (247 BCE – 224 CE), represents
a continuation of Achaemenid Aramaic, widely spoken throughout the
west of the empire. Aramaic continued as the scribal basis for
Pahlavi as it developed for the
needs of Parthian: using an
Aramaic-derived script and incorporating many 'heterograms', or
Aramaic words meant to be read as Parthian ones. The Arsacids saw
themselves as a continuation of Achaemenid rule, and so Arsacid
Aramaic, more than any other post-Achaemenid dialect, continued the
tradition of the chancery of Darius
I. Over time, however, it came under the influence of
contemporary, spoken Aramaic, Georgian and Persian. After the conquest of the
Parthians by the Persian-speaking Sasanids, Arsacid Pahlavi and Aramaic were
influential on Sasanian language use.

Late Old Eastern Aramaic

The dialects mentioned in the last section were all descended from
Achaemenid Imperial Aramaic. However, the diverse regional dialects
of Late Ancient Aramaic continued alongside these, often as simple,
spoken languages. Early evidence for these spoken dialects is known
only through their influence on words and names in a more standard
dialect. However, these regional dialects became written languages
in the second century BC. These dialects reflect a stream of
Aramaic that is not dependent on Imperial Aramaic, and shows a
clear division between the regions of Mesopotamia, Babylon and the
east, and Judah, Syria, and the west.

In the East, the dialects of Palmyrene and Arsacid Aramaic merged
with the regional languages to create languages with a foot in
Imperial and a foot in regional Aramaic. Much later, Arsacid became
the liturgical language of the Mandaean
religion, Mandaic.

In the
kingdom of Osroene, centred on Edessa and founded in 132 BCE, the regional dialect became
the official language: Old Syriac.On the upper reaches
of the Tigris, East
Mesopotamian Aramaic flourished, with evidence from Hatra, Assur and the
Tur
Abdin.Tatian, the author of
the gospel harmony the Diatessaron came
from Assyria, and perhaps wrote his work (172 CE) in East
Mesopotamian rather than Syriac or Greek. In Babylonia, the
regional dialect was used by the Jewish community, Jewish Old
Babylonian (from c. 70 CE). This everyday language
increasingly came under the influence of Biblical Aramaic and
Babylonian Targumic.

Late Old Western Aramaic

The western regional dialects of Aramaic followed a similar course
to those of the east. They are quite distinct from the eastern
dialects and Imperial Aramaic. Aramaic came to coexist with
Canaanite dialects, eventually completely displacing Phoenician in the first century BCE and
Hebrew
around the turn of the fourth century CE.

The form of Late Old Western Aramaic used by the Jewish community
is best attested, and is usually referred to as Jewish Old
Palestinian. Its oldest form is Old East Jordanian, which
probably comes from the region of Caesarea Philippi. This is the dialect of the oldest
manuscript of Enoch (c. 170
BCE). The next distinct phase of the language is called Old Judaean
into the second century CE. Old Judaean literature can be found in
various inscriptions and personal letters, preserved quotations in
the Talmud and receipts from Qumran.Josephus' first, non-extant edition of his
Jewish War was written
in Old Judaean.

The Old East Jordanian dialect continued to be used into the first
century CE by pagan communities living to the east of the Jordan.
Their dialect is often then called Pagan Old Palestinian, and it
was written in a cursive script somewhat similar to that used for
Old Syriac. A Christian Old Palestinian dialect may have arisen
from the pagan one, and this dialect may be behind some of the
Western Aramaic tendencies found in the otherwise eastern Old
Syriac gospels (see Peshitta).

Languages during Jesus' lifetime

In the first century CE, Jews in Judaea are believed to have
primarily spoken Aramaic with a dwindling number using Hebrew as a native language. Many learned
Hebrew as a liturgical language. Additionally, Koine Greek was an international language of the
Roman administration and trade, and was widely understood by those
in the urban spheres of influence. Latin was
spoken in the Roman army, but had almost no impact on the
linguistic landscape.

In addition to the formal, literary dialects of Aramaic based on
Hasmonaean and Babylonian there were a number of colloquial Aramaic
dialects. Seven dialects of Western Aramaic were spoken
in the vicinity of Judaea in Jesus' time. They
were probably distinctive yet mutually intelligible. Old Judaean was the
prominent dialect of Jerusalem and Judaea. The region of Engedi had the South-east Judaean dialect.
Samaria had its distinctive Samaritan Aramaic, where the
consonants 'he', ' ' and '‘ayin' all became pronounced as 'aleph'. Galilean Aramaic, the dialect of Jesus'
home region, is only known from a few place names, the influences
on Galilean Targumic, some rabbinic literature and a few private
letters. It seems to have a number of distinctive features:
diphthongs are never simplified into
monophthongs. East of the Jordan, the various dialects of East
Jordanian were spoken. In the region of Damascus and the Anti-Lebanon mountains, Damascene Aramaic was spoken (deduced mostly from
Modern Western Aramaic).Finally, as far north as Aleppo, the western
dialect of Orontes Aramaic was spoken.

The three languages mutually influenced each other, especially
Hebrew and Aramaic. Hebrew words entered Jewish Aramaic (mostly
technical religious words but also everyday words like 'wood').
Vice versa, Aramaic words entered Hebrew (not only Aramaic words
like māmmôn 'wealth' but Aramaic ways of using words like
making Hebrew rā’ûi, 'seen' mean 'worthy' in the sense of
'seemly', which is a loan translation of Aramaic meaning 'seen' and
'worthy').

The Greek of the New Testament often
preserves non-Greek semiticisms, including
transliterations of Semitic words:

Some are Aramaic like talitha (ταλιθα) that can
represent the noun (Mark 5:41).

Others can be either Hebrew or Aramaic like Rabbounei
(Ραββουνει), which stands for 'my master/great one/teacher' in both
languages (John 20:16).

The 2004 film The Passion
of the Christ is notable for its use of much dialogue in
Aramaic only, specially reconstructed by a scholar, but not an
Aramaic specialist, William Fulco.
Where the appropriate words (in first century Aramaic) were no
longer known, he used the Aramaic of Daniel, fourth-century Syriac
and Hebrew as the basis for his work. Modern Aramaic speakers found
the language stilted and unfamiliar.

Middle Aramaic

The third century CE is taken as the threshold between Old and
Middle Aramaic. During that century, the nature of the various
Aramaic languages and dialects begins to change. The descendants of
Imperial Aramaic ceased to be living languages, and the eastern and
western regional languages began to form vital, new literatures.
Unlike many of the dialects of Old Aramaic, much is known about the
vocabulary and grammar of Middle Aramaic.

Eastern Middle Aramaic

Only two of the Old Eastern Aramaic languages continued into this
period. In the north of the region, Old Syriac moved into Middle
Syriac. In the south, Jewish Old Babylonian became Jewish Middle
Babylonian. The post-Achaemenid, Arsacid dialect became the
background of the new Mandaic
language.

Syriac

Syriac (also "Middle Syriac") is the classical, literary and
liturgical language of Syriac
Christians to this day. Its golden age was the fourth to sixth
centuries. This period began with the translation of the Bible into
the language: the Peshitta and the
masterful prose and poetry of Ephrem
the Syrian. Middle Syriac, unlike its forebear, is a thoroughly
Christian language, although in time it became the language of
those opposed to the Byzantine
leadership of the church in the east. Missionary activity
led to the spread of Syriac through Persia and into
India and China.

Jewish Middle Babylonian Aramaic

Jewish Middle Babylonian is the language employed by Jewish writers
in Babylonia between the fourth century and the eleventh century
CE. It is most commonly identified with the language of the
Babylonian Talmud (which was completed in the
seventh century) and of post-Talmudic (Geonic) literature, which are the most important
cultural products of Babylonian Jewry. The most important
epigraphic sources for the dialect are the hundreds of Aramaic
magic bowls written in the Jewish script.

Mandaic

Mandaic is a sister dialect to Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, though it
is both linguistically and culturally distinct. Classical Mandaic
is the language in which the Mandaean's religious literature was
composed. It is characterized by a highly phonetic
orthography.

Western Middle Aramaic

The dialects of Old Western Aramaic continued with Jewish Middle
Palestinian (in Hebrew 'square
script'), Samaritan Aramaic (in the old Hebrew script) and Christian
Palestinian (in cursive Syriac
script). Of these three, only Jewish Middle Palestinian
continued as a written language.

Jewish Middle Palestinian Aramaic

In 135,
after the Bar Kokhba revolt, many
Jewish leaders, expelled from Jerusalem, moved to Galilee.
The Galilean dialect thus rose from obscurity to become the
standard among Jews in the west. This dialect was spoken not only
in Galilee, but also in the surrounding parts. It is the linguistic
setting for the Jerusalem Talmud
(completed in the fifth century), Palestinian targumim (Jewish Aramaic versions of scripture), and
midrashim (biblical commentaries and
teaching). The standard vowel pointing for
the Hebrew Bible, the Tiberian system
(seventh century), was developed by speakers of the Galilean
dialect of Jewish Middle Palestinian. Classical Hebrew
vocalisation, therefore, in representing the Hebrew of this period,
probably reflects the contemporary pronunciation of this Aramaic
dialect.

Samaritan Aramaic

The Aramaic dialect of the Samaritan
community is earliest attested by a documentary tradition that can
be dated back to the fourth century. Its modern pronunciation is
based on the form used in the tenth century.

Christian Palestinian Aramaic

The language of Western-Aramaic-speaking Christians is evidenced
from the sixth century, but probably existed two centuries earlier.
The language itself comes from Christian Old Palestinian, but its
writing conventions were based on early Middle Syriac, and it was
heavily influenced by Greek. The name Jesus, although
Yešû` in Aramaic, is written Yesûs in Christian
Palestinian.

Modern Aramaic

Over 400,000 people of various communities from across the Middle East, and recent emigrants who have moved out of these
communities, speak one of several varieties of Modern Aramaic (also
called Neo-Aramaic) natively, including by religious
adherence; Christians, Jews, Mandaeans and Muslims. Having lived in remote areas as insulated
communities, the remaining modern speakers of Aramaic dialects
escaped the linguistic pressures experienced by others during the
large scale language shifts that saw
the proliferation of other tongues among those who previously did
not speak them, most recently the Arabization of the Middle East and North Africa
by MuslimArabians, during their spread of Islam. Most of the people of that region who converted
to Islam, and many from the remaining unconverted population, also
adopted Arabic as their first language. The Aramaic speakers have
preserved their traditions with printing presses and now with
electronic media.

The Neo-Aramaic languages are now farther apart in their
comprehension of one another than perhaps they have ever been. The
last two-hundred years have not been good to Aramaic speakers.
Instability throughout the Middle East has led to a worldwide
diaspora of Aramaic-speakers. The year 1915 is especially prominent for
Aramaic-speaking Christians who experienced the Assyrian Genocide (Sayfo or
Saypā; literally meaning sword in Syriac), and all Christian groups living in
eastern Turkey in general
(see also Armenian Genocide,
Greek genocide) who were the subjects
of the genocide that marked the end of the Ottoman Empire.For Aramaic-speaking
Jews 1950 is a watershed year: the founding of the state of
Israel and
consequent Jewish exodus
from Arab lands, including Iraq, led most
Iraqi Jews, both Aramaic-speaking and Arabic-speaking Iraqi Jews,
to emigrate to Israel. However, immigration to Israel has
led to the Jewish Neo-Aramaic (and Jewish Iraqi Arabic) being
replaced by Modern Hebrew among children of the migrants. The
practical extinction of many Jewish dialects seems imminent.

Modern Eastern Aramaic

Modern Eastern Aramaic exists in a wide variety of dialects and
languages. There is significant difference between the Aramaic
spoken by Jews, Christians, and Mandaeans.

The Christian languages are often called Modern Syriac (or Neo-Syriac, particularly when
referring to their literature), being deeply influenced by the
literary and liturgical language of Middle Syriac. However, they
also have roots in numerous, previously unwritten, local Aramaic
dialects, and are not purely the direct descendants of the language
of Ephrem the Syrian.

Modern
Western Syriac (also called Central Neo-Aramaic, being in between
Western Neo-Aramaic and Eastern Neo-Syriac) is generally
represented by Turoyo, the language
of the Tur
Abdin. A related language, Mlahsô, has recently become
extinct.

The eastern Christian languages (Modern Eastern Syriac or Eastern
Neo-Aramaic) are often called Sureth or Suret,
from a native name. They are also sometimes called Assyrian or Chaldean, but these names are not
accepted by all speakers. The dialects are not all mutually
intelligible. East Syriac communities are usually members of either
the Chaldean Catholic
Church or Assyrian
Church of the East.

The
Jewish Modern Aramaic
languages are now mostly spoken in Israel, and most
are facing extinction (older speakers are not passing the language
to younger generations).The Jewish dialects that have come from
communities that once lived between Lake Urmia and Mosul are not all
mutually intelligible.In some places, for example Urmia, Christians
and Jews speak mutually unintelligible dialects of Modern Eastern
Aramaic in the same place. In others, the plain of Mosul for
example, the dialects of the two faith communities are similar
enough to allow conversation.

Modern Western Aramaic

Very little remains of Western Aramaic. It is still spoken in
the villages of Ma'loula, Bakh`a and Jubb`adin on Syria's side of
the Anti-Lebanon
mountains, as well as by some people who migrated from these
villages, to Damascus and other larger towns of Syria. All these
speakers of Modern Western Aramaic are fluent in Arabic, which has
now become the main language in these villages.

Sounds

Each dialect of Aramaic has its own distinctive pronunciation, and
it would not be feasible here to go into all these properties.
Aramaic has a phonological palette of 25 to 40 distinct phonemes.
In general, older dialects tended to have a richer phonology than
more modern ones. In particular, some modern Jewish Aramaic
pronunciations lack the series of 'emphatic' consonants. Other
dialects have borrowed from the inventories of surrounding
languages, particularly Arabic,
Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Persian and Turkish.

Vowels

As with most Semitic languages, Aramaic can be thought of as having
three basic sets of vowels:

Open a-vowels

Close front i-vowels

Close back u-vowels

These vowel groups are relatively stable, but the exact
articulation of any individual is most dependent on its consonantal
setting.

The cardinal open vowel is an open near-front unrounded vowel
('short' a, somewhat like the first vowel in the English
'batter', ). It usually has a back counterpart ('long' a,
like the a in 'father', , or even tending to the vowel in
'caught', ), and a front counterpart ('short' e, like the
vowel in 'head', ). There is much correspondence between these
vowels between dialects. There is some evidence that Middle
Babylonian dialects did not distinguish between the short
a and short e. In West Syriac dialects, and
possibly Middle Galilean, the long a became the o
sound. The open e and back a are often indicated
in writing by the use of the letters 'alaph' (a glottal stop) or 'he' (like the English
h).

The cardinal close front vowel is the 'long' i (like the
vowel in 'need', ). It has a slightly more open counterpart, the
'long' e, as in the final vowel of 'café' ( ). Both of
these have shorter counterparts, which tend to be pronounced
slightly more open. Thus, the short close e corresponds
with the open e in some dialects. The close front vowels
usually use the consonant y as a mater lectionis.

The cardinal close back vowel is the 'long' u (like the
vowel in 'school', ). It has a more open counterpart, the 'long'
o, like the vowel in 'low' ( ). There are shorter, and
thus more open, counterparts to each of these, with the short close
o sometimes corresponding with the long open a.
The close back vowels often use the consonant w to
indicate their quality.

Two basic diphthongs exist: an open vowel
followed by y (ay), and an open vowel followed by
w (aw). These were originally full diphthongs,
but many dialects have converted them to e and o
respectively.

The so-called 'emphatic' consonants (see the next section) cause
all vowels to become mid-centralised.

Consonants

The various alphabets used for writing Aramaic languages have
twenty-two letters (all of which are consonants). Some of these
letters, though, can stand for two or three different sounds
(usually a plosive and a fricative at the same point of
articulation). Aramaic classically uses a series of lightly
contrasted plosives and fricatives:

Labial set: p/f and
b/v,

Dental set: t/θ and
d/ð,

Velar set: k/x and g/ .

Each member of a certain pair is written with the same letter of
the alphabet in most writing systems (that is, p and
f are written with the same letter), and are near allophones.

A distinguishing feature of Aramaic phonology (and that of Semitic
languages in general) is the presence of 'emphatic' consonants.
These are consonants that are pronounced with the root of the
tongue retracted, with varying degrees of pharyngealization and velarisation. Using their alphabetic names,
these emphatics are:

Historical sound changes

Six broad features of sound change can be seen as dialect
differentials:

Vowel change This occurs almost too frequently to document
fully, but is a major distinctive feature of different
dialects.

Plosive/fricative pair reduction Originally, Aramaic, like
Tiberian Hebrew, had
fricatives as conditioned allophones for
each plosive. In the wake of vowel changes, the distinction
eventually became phonemic; still later, it was often lost in
certain dialects. For example, Turoyo has mostly lost /p/, using /f/
instead; other dialects (for instance, standard Assyrian Neo-Aramaic) have lost /θ/ and
/ð/ and replaced them with /t/ and /d/. In most dialects of Modern
Syriac, /f/ and /v/ become /w/ after a vowel.

Loss of emphatics Some dialects have replaced emphatic
consonants with non-emphatic counterparts, while those spoken in
the Caucasus often have glottalized rather than pharyngealized emphatics.

Guttural assimilation This is the main feature of Samaritan
pronunciation, also found in the Samaritan Hebrew language: all the
gutturals are reduced to a simple glottal stop. Some Modern Aramaic
dialects do not pronounce h in all words (the third person
masculine pronoun 'hu' becomes 'ow').

Proto-Semitic */θ/ */ð/ are reflected in Aramaic as */t/, */d/,
whereas they became sibilants in Hebrew (the number three in Hebrew
is 'šālôš', but ' ' in Aramaic). Dental/sibilant shifts are still
happening in the modern dialects.

New phonetic inventory Modern dialects have borrowed sounds
from the surrounding, dominant languages. The usual inventory is
(as the first consonant in 'azure'), (as in 'jam') and (as in
'church'). The Syriac alphabet has
been adapted for writing these new sounds.

Grammar

As with other Semitic languages, Aramaic morphology (the way words are put
together) is based on the triliteral
root. The root consists of three consonants and has a basic
meaning, for example, k-t-b has the meaning of 'writing'.
This is then modified by the addition of vowels and other
consonants to create different nuances of the basic meaning:

, handwriting, inscription, script, book.

, the Scriptures.

, secretary, scribe.

, I wrote.

, I shall write.

Nouns and adjectives

Aramaic nouns and adjectives are inflected to show gender, number
and state. The latter somewhat akin to case in Indo-European languages.

Aramaic has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine. The
feminine absolute singular is usually marked by the ending
-â, which is usually written with an aleph. Jewish varieties, however, often use he instead, following Hebrew orthography.

Nouns can be either singular or plural, but an additional 'dual'
number exists for nouns that usually come in pairs. The dual number
gradually disappeared from Aramaic over time and has little
influence in Middle and Modern Aramaic.

Aramaic nouns and adjectives can exist in one of three states;
these states correspond in part to the role of cases in other
languages.

The absolute state is the basic form of a noun (for
example, , 'handwriting'). The absolute state can be used in most
syntactical roles. However, by the Middle Aramaic period, its use
for nouns, but not adjectives, had been widely replaced by the
emphatic state.

The construct state
is a form of the noun used to make possessive phrases (for example,
, 'the handwriting of the queen). In the masculine singular it is
often the same as the absolute, but may undergo vowel reduction in
longer words. The feminine construct and masculine construct plural
are marked by suffixes. Unlike a genitive
case, which marks the possessor, the construct state is marked
on the possessed. This is mainly due to Aramaic word order:
possessed[const.] possessor[abs./emph.] are
treated as a speech unit, with the first unit (possessed) employing
the construct state to link it to the following word. In Middle
Aramaic, the use of the construct state for all but stock phrases
(like bar-nāšâ, 'son of man') begins to disappear.

The emphatic or determined state is an
extended form of the noun that functions a bit like a definite article (which Aramaic lacks; for
example, , 'the handwriting'). It is marked with a suffix. Although
its original grammatical function seems to have been to mark
definiteness, it is used already in Imperial Aramaic to mark all
important nouns, even if they should be considered technically
indefinite. This practice developed to the extent that the absolute
state became a virtual rarity in later varieties of Aramaic.

Whereas other Northwest
Semitic languages, like Hebrew, have the absolute and construct
states, the emphatic/determined state is a unique feature to
Aramaic. Case endings, as in Ugaritic, probably existed in a very
early stage of the language, and glimpses of them can be seen in a
few compounded proper names. However, as most were short final
vowels, they were never written, and the few characteristic long
vowels of the masculine plural accusative and genitive are not
clearly evidenced in inscriptions. Often, the direct object is marked by a prefixed
l- (the preposition 'to') if it is
definite.

Adjectives agree with their nouns in number and gender, but only
agree in state if attributive. Predicative adjectives are in the
absolute state regardless of the state of their noun (a copula can, but need not be written).
Thus, an attributive adjective to an emphatic noun, as in the
phrase 'the good king', is written also in the emphatic state —
king[emph.] good[emph.]. In comparison, the predicative adjective,
as in the phrase 'the king is good', is written in the absolute
state — good[abs.] king[emph.].

‘good’

masc. sg.

fem. sg.

masc. pl.

fem. pl.

abs.

ṭāḇ

ṭāḇâ

ṭāḇîn

ṭāḇān

const.

ṭāḇ

ṭāḇaṯ

ṭāḇê

ṭāḇāṯ

det./emph.

ṭāḇâ

ṭāḇtâ

ṭāḇayyâ

ṭāḇāṯâ

The final -â in a number of these suffixes is written with
the letter aleph. However, some Jewish Aramaic
texts employ the letter he for the
feminine absolute singular. Likewise, some Jewish Aramaic texts
employ the Hebrew masculine absolute singular suffix -îm
instead of -în. The masculine determined plural suffix,
-ayyâ, has an alternative version, -ê. The
alternative is sometimes called the 'gentilic plural' for its
prominent use in ethnonyms (yəhûḏāyê, 'the Jews', for
example). This alternative plural is written with the letter
aleph, and came to be the only plural for
nouns and adjectives of this type in Syriac and some other
varieties of Aramaic. The masculine construct plural, -ê,
is written with yodh. In Syriac and some other
variants this ending is diphthongized to
-ai.

Possessive phrases in Aramaic can either be made with the construct
state or by linking two nouns with the relative particle
d[î]-. As use of the construct state almost disappears
from the Middle Aramaic period on, the latter method became the
main way of making possessive phrases.

For example, the various forms of possessive phrases (for 'the
handwriting of the queen') are:

— the oldest construction: the possessed object(kṯāḇâ,
'handwriting') is in the construct state (kṯāḇaṯ); the possessor
(malkâ, 'queen') is in the emphatic state (malkṯâ)

— both words are in the emphatic state and the relative
particle d[î]- is used to mark the relationship

— both words are in the emphatic state, and the relative
particle is used, but the possessed is given an anticipatory,
pronominal ending (kṯāḇt[â]-āh, 'handwriting-her'; literally, 'her
writing, that (of) the queen').

In Modern Aramaic, the last form is by far the most common. In
Biblical Aramaic, the last form is virtually absent.

Verbs

The Aramaic verb has gradually evolved in time and place, varying
between varieties of the language. Verb forms are marked for
person (first, second or third),
number (singular or plural),
gender (masculine or feminine),
tense (perfect or imperfect),
mood (indicative, imperative,
jussive or infinitive) and voice
(active, reflexive or passive). Aramaic also employs a system of
conjugation, or verbal
stems, to mark intensive and extensive developments in the lexical
meaning of verbs.

Aspectual tense

Aramaic has two proper tenses:
perfect and imperfect. These were originally
aspectual, but developed into
something more like a preterite and
future. The perfect tense is unmarked, while the imperfect uses various
preformative that vary according to person,
number and gender. In both tenses the third-person singular
masculine is the unmarked form from which others are derived by
addition of afformative (and preformatives in
the imperfect). In the chart below (on the root K-T-B, meaning 'to
write'), the first form given is the usual form in Imperial
Aramaic, while the second is Classical
Syriac.

Person & gender

Perfect

Imperfect

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

3rd m.

kəṯaḇ ↔ kəṯaḇ

kəṯaḇû ↔ kəṯaḇ(w)/kəṯabbûn

yiḵtuḇ ↔ neḵtoḇ

yiḵtəḇûn ↔ neḵtəḇûn

3rd f.

kiṯbaṯ ↔ keṯbaṯ

kəṯaḇâ ↔ kəṯaḇ(y)/kəṯabbên

tiḵtuḇ ↔ teḵtoḇ

yiḵtəḇān ↔ neḵtəḇān

2nd m.

kəṯaḇt ↔ kəṯaḇt

kəṯaḇtûn ↔ kəṯaḇton

tiḵtuḇ ↔ teḵtoḇ

tiḵtəḇûn ↔ teḵtəḇûn

2nd f.

kəṯaḇtî ↔ kəṯaḇt(y)

kəṯaḇtēn ↔ kəṯaḇtên

tiḵtuḇîn ↔ teḵtuḇîn

tiḵtəḇān ↔ teḵtəḇān

1st m./f.

kiṯḇēṯ ↔ keṯḇeṯ

kəṯaḇnâ ↔ kəṯaḇn

eḵtuḇ ↔ eḵtoḇ

niḵtuḇ ↔ neḵtoḇ

Conjugations or verbal stems

Like other Semitic languages, Aramaic employs a number of
conjugations, or verbal stems, to extend the lexical coverage of
verbs. The basic conjugation of the verb is called the ground
stem, or G-stem. Following the tradition of mediaeval
Arabic grammarians, it is more often called the Pə‘al (also written
Pe‘al), using the form of the triliteral
root P-‘-L, meaning ‘to do’. This stem carries the basic
lexical meaning of the verb.

By doubling of the second radical, or root letter, the D-stem or
Pa‘‘el is formed. This is often an intensive development of the
basic lexical meaning. For example, means ‘he killed’, whereas
means ‘he slew’. The precise relationship in meaning between the
two stems differs for every verb.

A preformative, which can be
ha-, a- or ša-, creates the C-stem or
variously the Hap̄‘el, Ap̄‘el or Šap̄‘el (also spelt Haph‘el,
Aph‘el and Shaph‘el). This is often an extensive or causative
development of the basic lexical meaning. For example, means ‘he
went astray’, whereas means ‘he deceived’. The Šap̄‘el is the least
common variant of the C-stem. Because this variant is standard in
Akkadian, it is possible that its
use in Aramaic represents loanwords from
that language. The difference between the variants Hap̄‘el and
Ap̄‘el appears to be the gradual dropping of the initial h
sound in later Old Aramaic. This is noted by the respelling of the
older he preformative with aleph.

These three conjugations are supplemented with three derived
conjugations, produced by the preformative hiṯ- or
eṯ-. The loss of the initial h sound occurs
similarly to that in the form above. These three derived stems are
the Gt-stem, Hiṯpə‘el or Eṯpə‘el (also written Hithpe‘el or
Ethpe‘el), the Dt-stem, Hiṯpa‘‘al or Eṯpa‘‘al (also written
Hithpa‘‘al or Ethpa‘‘al), and the Ct-stem, Hiṯhap̄‘al, Ettap̄‘al,
Hištap̄‘al or Eštap̄‘al (also written Hithhaph‘al, Ettaph‘al,
Hishtaph‘al or Eshtaph‘al). Their meaning is usually reflexive, but later became passive. However, as with other conjugations,
actual meaning differs from verb to verb.

Not all verbs utilise all of these conjugations, and, in some, the
G-stem is not used. In the chart below (on the root K-T-B, meaning
‘to write’), the first form given is the usual form in Imperial
Aramaic, while the second is Classical
Syriac.

Stem

Perfect active

Imperfect active

Perfect passive

Imperfect passive

Pə‘al (G-stem)

kəṯaḇ ↔ kəṯaḇ

yiḵtuḇ ↔ neḵtoḇ

kəṯîḇ

Hiṯpə‘ēl/Eṯpə‘el (Gt-stem)

hiṯkəṯēḇ ↔ eṯkəṯeḇ

yiṯkəṯēḇ ↔ neṯkəṯeḇ

Pa‘‘ēl/Pa‘‘el (D-stem)

kattēḇ ↔ katteḇ

yəḵattēḇ ↔ nəkatteḇ

kuttaḇ

Hiṯpa‘‘al/Eṯpa‘‘al (Dt-stem)

hiṯkattaḇ ↔ eṯkattaḇ

yiṯkattaḇ ↔ neṯkattaḇ

Hap̄‘ēl/Ap̄‘el (C-stem)

haḵtēḇ ↔ aḵteḇ

yəhaḵtēḇ ↔ naḵteḇ

huḵtaḇ

Hiṯhap̄‘al/Ettap̄‘al (Ct-stem)

hiṯhaḵtaḇ ↔ ettaḵtaḇ

yiṯhaḵtaḇ ↔ nettaḵtaḇ

Aramaic also has two proper tenses: the perfect and the imperfect. In
Imperial Aramaic, the participle began to
be used for a historical present.
Perhaps under influence from other languages, Middle Aramaic
developed a system of composite tenses (combinations of forms of
the verb with pronouns or an auxiliary
verb), allowing for narrative that is more vivid. The syntax of
Aramaic (the way sentences are put together) usually follows the
order verb-subject-object (VSO). Imperial (Persian) Aramaic,
however, tended to follow a S-O-V pattern (similar to Akkadian),
which was the result of Persian syntactic influence.

Aramaic word processors

The
World's first Aramaic language word
processing software was developed in 1986–1987 in Kuwait by a young
information technology professional named Sunil Sivanand, who is
now Managing Director and Chief Technology Architect at Acette. Sunil Sivanand did most of the
character generation and programming work on a first generation,
twin disk drive IBM Personal
Computer. The project was sponsored by Daniel Benjamin, who was
a patron of a group of individuals working worldwide to preserve
and revive the Aramaic language.

Notes

Aramaic appears somewhere between 11th and 9th centuries BCE.
Beyer (1986: 11) suggests that written Aramaic probably dates from
the eleventh century BCE, as it is established by the tenth
century, to which he dates the oldest inscriptions of northern
Syria. Heinrichs (1990: x) uses the less controversial date of
ninth century, for which there is clear and widespread
attestation.